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The players were dismissed by the club for misconduct after alleged drug use at a players' Christmas party. The two players had their contracts terminated by the Perth club after they were seen with a "white substance" by a member of staff.

But O'Boyle and Thomas exercised their right to appeal against the decision and their legal representatives joined those of the club to discuss the situation along with Scottish Premier League secretary Iain Blair.

Blair said: "The commission has sat and heard evidence and submissions over the last 10.5 hours. It has now adjourned and will reconvene to consider its verdict based on the evidence it has heard today early next week. I would expect a verdict to be forthcoming at that meeting."

Dundee United manager Alex Smith has welcomed yesterday's news that no further action will be taken against goalkeeper Alan Combe, who was alleged to have butted a linesman at Hibernian last December.

Combe, who has since lost his place to Paul Gallacher, appeared personally before the SFA's Disciplinary Committee at Hampden to hear the charge of exceptional misconduct being dropped.

"Though Alan should not have confronted the linesman - for which he received a club fine - he did not strike him and common sense has prevailed," said Smith.

Archibald insists a sum of £880,000 has been pledged to North Lanarkshire Council to environmentally improve a piece of land next to the stadium, known as Craigneuk Park.

The ground on which the New Broomfield Stadium stands is owned by the council, who have indicated they will hand over the title deeds on the condition that the park area is improved for community use.

Archibald was locked out of the ground - and had his management contract terminated - by provisional liquidators KPMG last Wednesday. Airdrie were then eliminated from the Scottish Cup after the SFA refused to allow the tie against Peterhead to be postponed.

Rangers' quarter-final Scottish Cup tie against Dundee United will be shown live on Sky TV on Sunday, March 11 with a 6.05pm kick-off. The BBC will transmit the Dunfermline/Celtic versus Hearts/Dundee tie on the same day, with an earlier kick-off of 2.35pm.

Dundee and Hearts will now replay their fourth round match at Dens Park on Wednesday, March 7. The clubs were due to play the fixture on Wednesday, Feb 28 but that date clashed with international matches, meaning Hearts would lose Andy Kirk, Antti Niemi, Robert Tomaschek and Thomas Flogel.

Raith have been given the go-ahead to meet Inverness Caledonian Thistle on the same day as Scotland's World Cup qualifier against Belgium.The league clash will go ahead on March 24 with a 1pm kick-off.